Species

32 species total

1

1

3

1

Very worn first-summer individual actively moulting in second-generation inner primaries, photographed in gull flock on rice fields alongside many Lesser Black-backed and several Yellow-legged Gulls. First seen by Helder Cardoso, who drew attention to its smaller size than congeners. When I examined my photos subsequently, I believed the structure and white-headed, 'snouty' appearance favoured Audouin's over e.g. a worn and bleached first-summer Mediterranean Gull, while the brown greater coverts eliminated Common Gull (with Ring-billed ruled out on a number of features). The 'piano-key' tail pattern appeared somewhat unusual and not to my knowledge a typical feature of any likely species, but subsequent discussion of this bird on the Western Palearctic Gulls Facebook group generated a link to images of an Audouin's with a similar tail pattern (see http://www.elisanet.fi/hj.koskinen/2kvLaraud20080627.html). In summary, no single feature of this bird is wrong for Audouin's, while all potential confusion species can be ruled out on one or more characters visible in the accompanying photos.